MEN WALKING AS TREES
Mark 8:22-26
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. A lawyer's dog ran into a butcher shop and stole a roast. The butcher went to the lawyer's office and asked him, "If a dog is without a leash and steals a roast from my store, do I have the legal right to require payment for the meat that was taken from me?”
2. The lawyer answered the butcher, "Oh yes, absolutely." The butcher said, "The dog was your dog, the meat was my meat, and -- according to your own advice -- you owe me $10 for the meat your dog took from me today."
3. The lawyer agreed with the butcher and immediately wrote the butcher a check for $10.
4. A few days later the butcher received a letter from the lawyer. The butcher opened the envelope and found an invoice for $60 for the lawyer’s consultation fee!
B. TEXT
22They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?"
24He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around."
25Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26Jesus sent him home, saying, "Don't go into the village.
C. THESIS
JESUS SAID, “I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life”(Jn. 8:12). Jesus Himself is the light of New Jerusalem. But we must allow Him to bring the light into our lives. TITLE: “Men Walking As Trees.”
I. BETHSAIDA: PLACE OF UNBELIEF
1. Its name means "House of Fishermen". In modern vernacular we might call it "Fishermen's Paradise/Heaven." It must have been a wonderful place.
2. When Jesus came into Galilee, and to the town of Bethsaida, Isaiah the Prophet(9:1-2) painted a different picture about this town: that it was in darkness; “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned” (Matt. 4:15-16).
3. There are a lot of people who are in darkness:
Darkness of depression
“ “ despair
“ “ grief
“ “ pain
“ “ understanding
Some people are at the point of suicide. Let Jesus bring light into your darkness!
4. TATTOO ON THE MIND. A man was walking through the twisted little streets of Kowloon in Hong Kong, & came upon a tattoo studio. In the window were displayed samples of the tattoos available. On the chest or arms you could have tattooed an anchor or flag or mermaid or whatever.
But what struck him with force were three words that could be tattooed on one’s flesh, “Born to lose.”
He entered the shop in astonishment and, pointing to those words, asked the Chinese tattoo artist, "Does anyone really have that terrible phrase, “Born to lose”, tattooed on his body?" He replied, "Yes, sometimes."
"But," the man said, "I just can’t believe that anyone in his right mind would do that." The Chinese man simply tapped his forehead and said in broken English, "Before tattoo on body, tattoo on mind."
5. Bethsaida should have been a town full of faith. Why? Because:
a. ΒΌ of the apostles came from that town; Philip, Andrew and Peter.
b. Jesus paid numerous trips to that town and
c. performed many outstanding miracles there.
6. But instead, it was a town which earned Jesus' condemnation. In Matthew 11:21 Jesus said, "Woe to you Bethsaida! If the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would've remained unto this day."
7. WHAT WERE THE SINS OF TYRE & SIDON?
a. They took treasures from the Lord’s Temple and put them in heathen temples, and
b. they sold Israelites as slaves(Joel 3:4-6;Amos 1:9). c. Jesus said that if those heathen cities had seen the miracles He did in Bethsaida, they would never have experienced divine judgment, because they would have responded positively and with faith.]
8. So Jesus compares how people respond to Him. Somebody will say, “God will not compare me with others!” I disagree. That’s why it matters how we obey the Holy Spirit’s promptings.
9. “Can’t we just do what we want and God doesn’t really care, as long as we’re not in overt sin?” NO! At the Bema judgment of Christ we believers will give account to our Lord as to how we obeyed God’s will for our lives. 10. Bethsaida was a town that did not respond to the Lord with faith and where, eventually, Jesus had to remove people from in order to perform a miracle, and then not allow them to go back to its contamination.
11. Our town has experienced much of God's grace; miracles have occurred here. Are we treating God casually or taking Him seriously?
12. Matthew 13:58 tells of another town where, "He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief." So Bethsaida wasn’t alone.
II. JESUS APPEALED TO HIS SENSE OF TOUCH
A. AN EXPERIENTIAL REVELATION
1. In verse 23, Jesus "took hold of" the blind man's hand and held it until they walked out of the town. He led him as you would lead a child. This healing involved three acts by the Lord: a. The spitting, b. Laying on of hands, c. and questioning him.
2. Jesus appealed to his sense of touch. It was an EXPERIENTIAL REVELATION -- Jesus revealing Himself to the blind man by His presence and contact, to encourage the blind man's faith. The man felt Christ's touch and heard his voice. By leading him away, He tested and exercised his faith[think of Helen Keller].
B. GOD WANTS TO TOUCH YOU
1. God wants to touch us and cause us to hear His voice just as this blind man did. God wants us to know Him by personal experience; to help us develop dependence on Him. Can a person really hear God’s voice? If you learn how to listen.
2. ILLUSTRATION
a. An American Indian and his friend were walking near Times Square in Manhattan. It was during the noon lunch hour and the streets were filled with people.
b. Cars were honking their horns, taxicabs were squealing around corners, sirens were wailing, and the sounds of the city were almost deafening. Suddenly, the Native American said, “I hear a cricket.”
c. His friend said, “What? You must be crazy. You couldn’t possibly hear a cricket in all of this noise!” “No, I’m sure of it,” the Native American said. “I heard a cricket.” “That’s crazy,” said the friend.
d. The Native American listened carefully for a moment, and then walked across the street to a big cement planter and looked into the bushes, and sure enough, he located a small cricket. His friend was utterly amazed.
e. “That’s incredible,” said his friend. “You must have super-human ears!” “No,” said the Native American. “My ears are no different from yours. It depends on what is really important to you. Here, let me show you.”
f. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a few coins, and dropped them on the sidewalk. Despite the noise of the crowded street, all the pedestrians within twenty feet turned and looked to see if the money that tinkled on the pavement was theirs.
g. “See what I mean?” asked the Native American. “It all depends on what’s important to you.”
III. GRADUAL HEALING OR 2 HEALINGS?
A. UNIQUE: PRAYED TWICE
THIS IS THE ONLY PLACE IN THE N.T. WHERE JESUS HAD TO PRAY FOR SOMEONE TWICE! WHY DID HE?
1. To show that the LORD was NOT TIED TO ONE METHOD OF divine HEALING. The neighbors didn’t ask Jesus
to ‘open the man’s eyes’, but ‘to touch him’, this indicates that they were convinced that Jesus only works in one way. “If we’re going to have revival, it must come in a certain manner.” No, Jesus may choose to do it differently this time; don’t try to put God in a box.
2. POSSIBLY TO INSPIRE FAITH IN THE MAN. There is no mention of faith on the part of the man; this may be the reason his healing was not instantaneous. Possibly the partial healing inspired faith for the full recovery. The healing may have been gradual so that Jesus might administer His power in increasing measures as the faith of the recipient increased.
3. Lesson: We should not despise God's work while it is in process. Small, intermediate steps may be His plan until all things are seen clearly. Do not despair about your own lack of spiritual progress.
B. POSSIBLY TWO HEALINGS
1. Virgil was a 50-year-old man, blind from childhood, whose sight was restored in 1991 after a cataract was removed and a new lens implanted. When the bandages were removed, Virgil could see, but he had no idea what he was seeing. His brain could make no sense of the images that his optic nerve was transmitting. Although he now had eyesight, he was still mentally blind—a condition known as agnosia.
2. One patient whose sight was restored medically, could not recognize individual faces a year after his eye operation, despite his having had perfectly normal vision during elementary school. It appears that when sight is suddenly restored, there is the need for the development of some new pathways in the visual cortex of the brain.
3. Thus the story of Jesus’ healing of the Bethsaida man in two stages has a built-in stamp of authority to the authenticity of the Word of God, one discernible only to modern-day medical authorities. This miracle of healing would have involved restoring or creating eye structures, as well as creating new nerve pathways and connections in the brain.
4. This leads to the thought that it’s possible to have eyes and not really see(see mark 8:17).
IV. IS IT POSS. TO BE HALF ENLIGHTENED?
Let’s suppose for a moment that this story were symbolic of spiritual blindness. The Bible says, “The god of this world has blinded the eyes of them that believe not." I believe this story portrays how Jesus heals many people spiritually but also needs to heal their minds from darkness and ignorance and replace them with truth.
A. THE HALF ENLIGHTENED
1. Freeze this scene between the first touch and the second touch of Jesus and what do you have? The 1/2 enlightened person. There are many of them in churches today.
2. They have had a partial experience, or a limited touch from Christ, but not enough to completely deliver them. They can't be happy in the world any longer, but they can't really say they are comfortable in the spiritual realm either.
3. They've been delivered from a lot, but not everything. They live in the half-light, half way between two worlds; they have 1 foot in each.
4. They have a half-commitment, a half-understanding, are half involved. From the outside they look pretty good; they are good, sober, steady, honest, and kind people.
5. But even in the house of God, they still feel Jesus is a long way away from them. They wish they could be closer. What they need is one more touch of Jesus; that will be all they need to carry them over.
B. THE DANGER OF HALF-ENLIGHTENMENT
1. To be half-enlightened is a dangerous place to be! THE DANGER IS THAT IT’S EASY TO GO BACK INTO THE DARKNESS, AND LOSE THE LIGHT!
2. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Eph. 5:14
3. REMEDY? You've had One Touch, but you need/must have Two!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: “I WILL TELL YOUR NAME”
1. A medical missionary served for many years in India. He served in a region where there was progressive blindness. People were born with healthy vision, but there was something in that area that caused people to lose their sight as they matured."
2. But this missionary developed a process which would arrest progressive blindness. So people flocked to him for his operation. They would leave realizing that they had been spared a life of blindness because of this missionary.
3. In that area, they never said, "Thank you," because that phrase was not in their dialect. Instead, they spoke a word that meant, "I will tell your name."
4. Wherever they went, they would tell the name of the missionary who had cured their blindness. They had received something so wonderful that they eagerly proclaimed it.
5. Many of us tell the Lord “Thank You,” but I’m sure He would rather have us say, “I will tell Your name!” Let’s adopt that practice and tell our neighbors and friends what Jesus has done for us!
B. ALTAR CALL
1. Let me make one final point. What finally brought this poor man healing was his honesty. He could have said, "Lord, I see all things clearly." If he had, he would never have gotten better. But his honesty got him the help he needed.
2. For many people it’s hard it is to be honest with God;
difficult to admit our weakness.
3. Will you admit that you need a second touch from Jesus? Come & stand at the front; find a place to pray at the altars.
